Sunday, September 9, 2018

Just like in my other fifty-four posts in this series, I want to take a second to single out the highlights of my recent film viewing. Most of the films I have been glad to see but only very few have stayed with me. This series is my filter for those and my hope is one or two will be good to you as well.

Paul Schrader's First Reformed

Schrader has always seemed like someone on the brink of imploding. He doesn't come across as one of these guys that easily shares his feelings or is often at peace. And his greatest characters all embody the same brooding nature that, unchecked, could become dangerous. I haven't seen all of his work but I am a huge fan of American Graffiti and Affliction and this is perhaps my favorite of all of his films I have seen. Hawke is perfect in the role and Schrader gives us moments that I previously would not have thought him capable of.

Serge Bozon's Mrs. HydeIt is a strange film and I am unsure all that Bozon is after but it features yet another tremendous performance from Huppert and visually it all feels incredibly clean and clear. It is, I guess, a little in the line of The Nutty Professor, but it takes that format to address the deep issues of racism facing France at the moment.

Guetty Felin's Ayiti Mon Amour

This film, although certainly flawed with times of mediocre acting or scenes that do not quite push past their influences, is impressive. It has scenes of great beauty and inventiveness, such as when Joakim and Anisia share a dance listening to non-existent music. It gives us Haiti, its sores and its riches while making us think, dream, sad and elated.

Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansmanSpike is totally in his element and his passion and talent come through in ways that I haven't seen in his work in more than twenty years. I found it messy, uneven and raw, as in akin to an early draft that still needed an editor's touch. But I also thought it the closest American film I have seen in the 21st century to the spirit of the daring and uncomfortable batch of great indies that first burst on the scene in the early to mid eighties.